Salinas area high school students such as Daisy Bedolla, plastic bucket in hand, collected rocks from the rodeo arena’s dirt floor earlier this week.

Bedolla, 18, is North Salinas High School student. She’s one of the California Rodeo Salinas’ youth volunteers, the efforts of whom make a huge difference in how well the rodeo works, those in charge say. Rather than busywork, the picking up of rocks out of the black earth is critical to getting the arena primed for the pounding of hooves, said B.J. Jones, serving on the grounds preparation committee.

Ridding the riding areas of rocks, makes the event safer.

“Say a cowboy or cowgirl falls and hits their head,” Jones said. “Horses could fall or stumble, too. A steer could stumble (on a rock) and break a leg.”

That’s why the bucket brigade of which Bedolla was a member is necessary. Also included on the brigade was Viridiana Bautista, 14, an Alvarez High School student. Behind the young workers stretched the empty seating area, the great geometric expanse of aluminum and red seats soon to be filled with cheering fans.

“Doing this work helps the rodeo, and it helps the community,” Bedolla said.

“Besides, it’s fun, and we love to watch the horses,” Bautista added.

Such youthful dedication to volunteering has become part of the rodeo tradition, said Flash Antazo, volunteer services chairman. Antazo operates out of a busy office not far from the arena’s Midway. Behind the wheel of a green and yellow Diesel-powered mini-wagon, she scoots point-to-point through the rodeo world.

Antazo has been a rodeo fan ever since she was a girl. Her father was a Philippino Bracero who worked the fields. The family lived off Natividad Road, where the surrounding area included dairy farms. What made the biggest impression on her were The Colmo and the precise alignment of military formations marching in review.

“Good memories,” she said.

Now, as a volunteer, she tries to extend the memories to others. In 1978, she became a committee member, and the young volunteers she works with perform many critical tasks, Antazo said.

They greet guests. They usher visitors through the crowd to their seats. They work with children in the Kids Corral and serve food in the hospitality tent. Then they bus the empty paper plates and plastic glasses. The list goes on and on.

“They make a major, major contribution,” Antazo said. “Each of them is looking to give back to the community.”

California Rodeo Salinas keeps a list of requirements that its young volunteer hopefuls must meet. For example, a person must be 12 to volunteer and to be a junior committee person. They must be 16 to be a California Rodeo committee person. They must be 21 to work wherever on the grounds alcohol served.

Last year, 297 young people worked in the Kids Corral and Grandstands. Total hours dedicated: 1,891.

Many of the young helpers are high school students compiling community service hours. A minimum of 60 such hours are required for graduation for many high schools. Yet, they’d do the work even if there wasn’t such a requirement, many said.

Over at the Mike Storm Director’s Patio, Martin Jefferson, director of rentals, showed four Salinas High School students how to do heavy moving in a planned efficient way.

“So that they’re working like a team,” Jefferson said. “Not just telling them that there are ten tables and 30 chairs to be moved, but doing it so they can visualize the end result.”

Monday a group of young people worked from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a 60-minute break for lunch.

“I think the work we’re doing is really giving back to the community,” said Leo Valdez, one of the Salinas High students. “Besides, I’ve never been to a rodeo before. I am going this year.”

The sentiment was echoed by his friend, Whany Green, a slim youth in camouflage pants and black T-shirt.

“You come out here with friends and help out working for a few hours. What could be better,” Whany said.

Bedolla and Bautista joined an advancing line of students stretched across the track. When they found a stone, they’d pick it up and drop it into their buckets. When the bucket got heavy, they’d empty the stones into the front scoop of a tractor that was slowly tracking them.

The rocks got into the arena mix when the new facility was built. The rocks were originally brought in to stabilize the soil so that it would provide support to bring in the heavy equipment, said Sam Jenkinson, grounds preparation director. Each year, more and more of them have been found and removed, he said.

Jenkinson said he has absolute confidence in the safety of the arena floor, and he’s happy to see the young volunteers involved.

“These kids are helpful and they don’t have a problem doing things,” Jenkinson said. “Besides, it gets them off their iPhones and out of their electronic world. This gives them a sense of values of the old life. Some had never been around a horse before. It’s all a part of their learning.”